A party quested there!
by nivlac
Summary: Quests can be found anywhere. When a mysterious gate that lead to different worlds appears, what self respecting adventurer wouldn't go through it?
1. Chapter 1

**This story is going to be a little experiment of mine. Now, this isn't D &D, it's actually Pathfinder, but really, they're both practically the same. So, enjoy the story here, and tell me if my experiment was a success. Trust me; you'll know what my experiment is when you read it.**

Drax sat cross legged, his massive body crushing the long green grass beneath him flat. He scratched at his pitch black hair, which had been matted down with the dried blood of a previous battle. He took in a breath of the warm summer air, and let out a breath. The shade from the massive trees above him felt nice. Even with him being a Nerog; a race of brutish giants, this forest made him seem small in comparison. The small ones were about one hundred feet tall. Patches of sunlight did beam through the leaves far above, those beams of light reflected off of his pitch black full plate armor. His barreled helmet lay in his lap, also the same shade of midnight darkness as the rest of his armor.

His massive dark mace lay up against a tree, seven feet of solid heavy metal. The hilt was a round ball, which lead up to a solid flat topped slap of hexagonal black steel. Next to it laid a massive tower shield, which was eight feet in height and six feet across of solid black steel, it looked more like a wall than a shield. Of course the mace wasn't his only weapon; he had far more in his backpack.

Far more.

The brown bag lay against the same tree, next to the soon to be rotting corpse of a fellow Nerog who thought it to be a good idea to fight Drax-ogre slayer. The corpse's skull had been smashed into little bits of paste, and its body was now laying slump against another tree. It wore no armor, and had no weapons. Giant rules 101, don't fight a giant that is bigger, smarter, and better equipped than you. Then again, Drax supposed that rule could be applied to pretty much any race, humans, elves, and orcs. The only race excluded from that rule would be dwarves, every other race save for gnomes and goblins were larger than them.

But Drax knew that they compensated for their short stature.

His black cape flowed down from around his breastplate; the magic cloth made him quicker, more fortuitous, and made his mind strong against mental domination magic. His dark armored boots were also magically enhanced, allowing him to run far faster than his size would normally allow. Many of these things he had achieved through repeated adventures, he had taken the boots off of an undead archer, whose ghost was still pestering Drax for them back every other day.

That got annoying.

His cloak was also from a dead man; however, there was no ghost to chastise him for taking it off of the corpse. His armor was from a fellow giant, however it wasn't a Nerog like Drax was. He was five feet taller, and far heavier.

Drax wasn't a follower of Giant rules 101.

He was around ten feet tall, and half a ton of absolute muscle, not counting his equipment of course. Drax stood up to his full height, and stretched, he had a habit of napping after a fight. The Beast Region was absolutely crawling with baddies for him to smash. He loved his country of Toss.

There was nothing on the corpse of his enemy, so he just continued to wander through the forest, holding his mace in his right hand and his tower shield in his left. Wearing all black in the summer made it blistering hot in his armor. However, the dangers of The Beast region demanded he wear full armor at all time, even giants can be preyed upon by the likes of Gremps and Chukkas; cousin species to dragons. While certainly not as large, they were still big enough to swallow Drax, armor and all in one gulp. He continued wandering through the forest, constantly observing his surroundings for anything that he may want to fight.

Of course there were Goblins; however, the problem with goblins was that they were just too weak to fight. Unless Drax had to fight a horde of a thousand of the three foot terrors, then they didn't interest him. It wasn't like they were in a rush to fight him either, for every time he caught site of one, it immediately would wet itself and run off.

Eventually however, he did come across something interesting. A large shimmering see through building. He could barely make out the details of it, because it was transparent. However, based on what he could make out… it looked kind of like a…

Gate.

He waved his hand through it, and nothing happened. However, if Drax's eyes weren't deceiving him, it looked like it was trying to take a more solid form. With nothing better to do, Drax took his backpack, and sat it down on the brown dirt. He opened the flap, seeing nothing inside of it. He reached inside, picturing what he wanted to pull out of it, and felt a scrambling body in his hands.

Drax smiled, and pulled it out of his bag. In his hand, giving him a death glare was his friend Gar, an Angelus monk. His head was bald, the sunlight reflecting off of his chrome dome. He wore no shirt, exposing his rippling muscles to the heat of the sun. He wore loose fitted pants with a golden rope around his waist, keeping it on him.

Gar was large for an Angelus, being well over six feet in height. His skin literally glowed like the sun, though it was nowhere near its intensity. His tanned skin glistened with sweat, and it stuck to Drax's armored gauntlet. He must have caught him as he was training again.

Drax let the monk down on the ground, and felt a strong punch collide with his jaw. Drax's vision blurred, but in all actuality, the giant should have expected Gar to be upset.

"You big fool! Do you realize what you have just done? I was about to perfect the explosive strike, then you pulled me away from my target! I will get out of the backpack whenever I'm well and ready do you understand!?" Gar shouted, shaking his sore fist.

Even when furious, it was hard for the monk to not sound positively jovial. He must have had a good day before Drax pulled him out of his backpack. His sharp jawline and stubbly face were shadowed by his white eyebrows. Gar's eyes were both a bright golden color, just like the others of his race.

Rubbing his jaw, Drax pointed to the shimmering gate.

"I thought you might wanna join me in my quest to look at stuff I don't understand." Drax said. "Should I reach in for the others? They might want to look at it too."

Gar took a deep breath, and placed a hand on his chin, looking at the shimmering gate. It was beginning to look more and more solid with each passing second. Gar lifted an eyebrow at the thing, and dusted something off of his elbow reaching red bracers.

"I don't really care, but was it really necessary to just rip me out of the bag like that? You couldn't just poke your head in there and say 'Oh hey Gar, would it be okay if I literally grabbed you for a moment' that would have been fine."

"You live in my bag; I have a right to grab you without your permission. I'm your land lord, or… bag lord, something. The point is, look at this damned thing! It's gonna get solid soon and when it does, I'm going to go through it." Drax answered.

Gar looked back at him.

"Why?" The monk asked, his brow furrowed.

Drax stood to his full height, pulling his backpack on in the process.

"Because why the fuck not?" Drax said.

Gar nodded his head.

"A better reason than 'I don't know' I suppose." Gar said.

"I'll pull the others out later; we can probably handle whatever's in there on our own anyhow."

The two waited in silence in front of the gate, watching it grow more and more solid with each passing minute. Eventually, it did indeed solidify. Drax could finally make out finer details.

It was shaped like the front of a mausoleum, with a triangular roof and white alabaster pillars supporting the front side of the roof. In between those pillars lie sets of three glowing turquoise gems, which seemed to hum with activity; they shone even brighter than Gar. A single one of these gems lay embedded atop the doorway, but unlike the other gems, it was cleanly cut. The passageway it lead to was pitch black, as if it leads into nothing.

Drax re donned his helmet, and picked up his mace, and Gar tightened the rope around his waist. Just as the two of them were about to enter however, they could hear the sound of… hooves? Coming from the other side, dozens, as if an army was charging through the gate. Drax raised his tower shield, and Gar put his hands up to parry any projectiles. They both backed away from the entrance, Drax still keeping his shield raised. It was then that Drax noticed that there weren't any tree's surrounding the gate for at least two hundred feet. How had he not noticed that before?

The galloping continued, and the two brave adventurers found themselves face to face with several cavalry men. They held iron tipped spears at the ready, as if to impale the two of them. They wore open face helmets, and sleeveless light black half plate. The man leading the charge held a massive flag in his hand, and a broadsword in another. The symbol on the flag was like nothing Drax had ever seen. This flag did not match those of any Lord in Toss. It was in the shape of an asterisk colored like steel, and had what looked like a large slitted eye in the center. The flag itself was a deep blood red.

Drax knew how much Mud liked that color.

"I guess you guys don't want to sit down and chat huh?" Drax yelled at the charging horsemen.

"Ooogaloo!" The flag bearer shouted.

Drax and Gar both spoke a multitude of languages, but that one threw them off. It sounded more like the babbling of a child, rather than an actual language.

"At least I get to try my explosive technique… hehehe." Gar chuckled.

 ***Combat begins***

Once the first horsemen was in range, Drax reared back his mace, and swung at the soldier, but much to his surprise, Drax missed horribly **(Nat one)** not only that, but he seemed to have accidently lost the grip on his mace, and it flew against another soldier, knocking him off of his horse. That soldier in particular was killed instantly, for it smashed into his head, cracking his skull wide open. **(Max damage)**

Gar deflected a spear, and with his superior reflexes, easily hopped on the back of one of the horses **(19 on the dice, made thirty with acrobatics bonus)** Gar easily grabbed the neck of the soldier on horseback, and snaps his neck **(CMB is 19)** The warrior fell off the beast, and was trampled by his fellow warriors.

Three soldiers attempted to spear the now unarmed Drax, two spears bounced harmlessly off of his armor as they rode by **(Ten and five on the dice. Drax's resting AC is 26.)** However, a single one of them actually managed to stab his lance deep into Drax's neck, in the space between Drax's helmet and armor. **(NAT 20! 21 points of damage 2d6x3! Drax's current hit points are now at 56 out of 77)**

While still riding aback the horse, standing straight up after successfully cracking his enemy's neck, an arrow and two swords strike at him. Gar smacked the arrow aside with ease **(Has deflect)**. The two swords go to attack him, and they both miss horribly, for Gar was able to weave away from the attacks. **(2 and 8 on the dice, Gar's resting AC is 24; magic bracers give him a plus 4 to AC.)**

 **(Drax heals 4 points as it's the top of the round. He has regeneration. Current hit points now at 60.)**

 **(Drax activates combat expertise, raising his AC to 28)** Furious with his wound, Drax grabs the rider by the skull with his now free massive hand. **(Drax's CMB bonus is 15; he rolled 15 on the dice. Imperial soldiers CMD are only 18.)** Drax grins, and then squeezes his skull and attempts to crush it like a grapefruit. The soldier screams in horrible pain, but his helmet seems to save him from a crushing demise. **(13 points of damage, imperial soldiers have 20 hit points.)**

 **(Gar also activates combat expertise, raising his ac from 24 to 26)** Gar jumps from the back of his horse, **(14 on the dice)** and attempts to kick another empire soldier in the face from mid-air. His foot finds purchase in the man's jaw, knocking the soldier off of his horse, leading to him being trampled underfoot by cavalry. **(8 points of damage, soldier failed reflex save to stay on his horse.)**

The man with the flag wielding a grey mace rides by, attempting to strike Drax on the skull. Drax narrowly dodged his head to the side of the blow, it barely missing his head. **(Officer rolled a 27. Drax's AC is 28 now.)**

Five arrows rain down on Gar's current position. He deflects one of them. Three of them miss easily **(4 11 and 6 on the dice)** however, the next one finds purchase in between Gar's ribs, causing him to cough up blood. **(NAT 20! 15 points of damage. Gar's hit points are 33 max. His current hit points are now at 18.**

 **(Drax is now at 64 hit points.)**

Frustrated, Drax activates the power of his armor, sending out waves of pure terror in a sixty foot radius throughout the army. **(DC 20)** One third of the army literally pisses themselves as they flee back towards the gate, screaming in pure horror. **(Nat one)** The other thirds seem to have a bit more composure, and don't piss themselves, however, they still flee back through the gate, screaming all the while **(3 and 8)**

Unfortunately, Gar is also within that radius, but thankfully resists the waves of fear that urged him to flee **(Rolled 10 on the dice. Will save is plus 8. When allies are affected, the DC is 18)**

 ***End of combat***

Drax let out a sigh, and lifted up the man he had in his grasp. He was sort of thankful that he didn't actually kill this guy. The soldier could have his uses. Drax noticed the smell of fresh piss coming from his groin, and sneered. The giant supposed that would be a voluntary reaction to getting shot with magical fear… well, magic, still though, that was just gross.

He pinned the soldier to the ground, and raised his fists over his kneecaps. He struck the soldiers legs violently; until there was no way that he would be walking anytime soon. By time Drax was done, bits of bone poked through his skin. He stopped screaming half way through the fifteen second process, likely fainted from the pain. Drax stood up, and then snapped the shaft of the spear off from his throat. He felt blood leak from his open wound as his meaty fingers dug into the open wound, forcing it to stay open so he could rip out the spear tip. Thankfully, he was successful, pulling out the iron tip with little difficulty. Having something like that heal into his neck wouldn't be comfortable.

Gar took a deep breath, and looked down at his wound. His red blood glowed like his skin, making it far brighter than that of a normal man's blood. Gar broke the shaft of the wooden arrow, and carefully went to work pulling out the arrow head. When he was done, he tapped into his inner Ki reserves, and felt his wounds close. He felt slightly dizzy afterwards, but that was better than just leaving the wound there.

There was now a massive scar four inches across under the right side of his chest. These enemies certainly weren't weak. He scanned the battlefield, and saw the man he kicked in the face earlier, attempting to get up. Somehow, he hadn't been trampled into a bloody puddle. Gar stood up, and marched over to him, and raised a finger to the man, who was now standing at full height.

"You're already dead." Gar stated.

The soldier turned to flee, likely because he was affected by Drax's armor as well. However, ten seconds after doing so, his head popped like a balloon. Gar smiled to himself.

"So channeling Ki in that way does work after all! Ha!" The monk laughed.

His training had paid off, and the results were… explosive.

Drax marched over to him, holding an unconscious soldier in his grasp.

"I'm going to feed him to Yutgrash to learn their language. Then we're going in there with everyone to kick ass." The giant said, laying his bag on the ground.

Drax opened up the flap, and said a few words in the demonic language. Suddenly, a bright red light emanated from the bag. Drax grinned, and then grabbed the unconscious soldier, haphazardly tossing him into the bag.

Yutgrash, a demon of knowledge. It attained its learning from consuming its prey. Drax captured it and is holding it in his bag. They have some sort of pact where the demon has to share its consumed knowledge with the giant, which was one of the reasons why Drax knew so many languages. A bright stream of yellow light shot out of the bag, and beamed right into the middle of Drax's forehead. The giant's eyes rolled into the back of his skull, and after a minute or so, Drax's eyes returned to normal, and the red and yellow light had both receded.

"Oogalo gah uk manki" Drax said to Gar.

Gar raised an eyebrow.

"What does that mean exactly?" Gar asked.

Drax grinned, and closed his backpack, placing it back on his… well, back. He walked past Gar, and retrieved his mace.

"It means we're going in there." Drax stated, wiping bits of brain matter off of his mace.

 **You get it now right? I'm using the combat system from table top RPG's. This way, the events of the story will be unpredictable for even me, it all lies in the dice. Now, as you've heard, Drax said he was going to bring in 'others' what I meant of course, was characters. YOUR characters. If you have a character from D &D or Pathfinder you want in this story, all you have to do is describe to me their feats, their mannerisms, how they react to certain stimuli, their AC, and basically everything off of your character sheets, feats included. Don't leave anything out, because they could die if you leave an advantage unknown to me. **

**If they are high level characters, I'll put them to the side for now, and use them later in the story.**

 **Evil characters are welcome, I can use the powerful ones to be antagonists in this story.**


	2. Chapter 2

" _ **Awaken, my four champions…"**_

Oros slowly opened his glowing white eyes, seeing a bright blue sky above him. The whirring of his metal clockwork arms being the first thing he heard. He sat up from the soft bright green grass beneath him, and looked all around him, taking in his surroundings.

Wide flat grassy plains surrounded him, stretching on farther than the eye could see. Few clouds marked the sky, leaving the sun to shine down on the earth. He looked down at his body, making sure all of his gear and body parts were still on him. The monk didn't want a repeat of the last time he woke up in a random place.

His large blood red feathered wings were still atop his back, and the ivory white circular metal bands that encircled his metal forearms still remained, as they would for all eternity. The clockwork blue jay bird that came with his clockwork blessing poked its head out of its nest in Oros's shoulder, quickly receding back into its depths.

The red lines etched into his flesh covered the entirety of his body, stretching down from the top of his bald head, over his pillar-like frame, to the bottom of his bare feet, encircling his eyes like a sideways oval. Massive muscles were barely concealed by a red robe hanging of the right side of his chest, leaving the left side exposed. A red aura surrounded him, flaring at random intervals.

The Aasimar was taken aback when he noticed the other three people lying on the ground behind him.

Silently cursing himself for not noticing them earlier, he took in their appearances.

One was a particularly large woman with pale blue skin. If Oros had to guess, she would most likely be well above seven feet in height, perhaps by eight inches, dwarfing his own six foot five. She wore a suit of matte grey half plate, which for some reason didn't reflect the light off of the sun from above. Dark blue rocky protrusions jutted out from her exposed shoulders, and massive dragon like wings lay spread out beneath her, covered with the same protrusions.

Decent muscles were prominently shown between the gauntlets and the half plate, showing that she could most definitely toss a cow if she really wanted too.

Long unkempt black hair tied in a thick braid reached down to her lower back, and at her belt he could see a longword. The blade itself was midnight black, with the hilt being a dull silver. Her gauntleted hands clutched a piece of yellow parchment tightly.

He then sighted the second among them.

Clearly an elf, but besides the long pointed ears, the first thing Oros noticed was his alabaster white flesh. So white it was nearly blinding. Dark green hair reached down to his shoulders, yet did little to hide the sign of his clear elven lineage. He appeared to be five foot nine, and was very thin. Such a body type betrayed physical weakness; however Oros knew that appearances could be deceiving.

He wore a fine robe with a drawn back cowl; the base color of the robe itself was purple with golden trimmings along the cuffs of his sleeves. The ring finger of his right hand held a bright golden ring with the image of a dragon head roaring fire, while his index held one made seemingly of simple silver. Black bracers covered his forearms, and three differently colored cloth bags were tied at his belt. One was red, another was purple, and the last was a dull brown. A fine yet simple looking shorts word was sheathed on the left side of his hip.

Oros noted the thick book he clutched tightly in his left hand, and came to a conclusion.

This was a wizard.

And a powerful one at that.

He looked to the third and final member, and cocked an eyebrow.

He appeared to be a simple human at first glance. Perhaps he was six foot two, with a frame that was slender but likely corded with thick muscle. Steel plate mail covered him from head to toe, and a large great sword lay gripped in his right hand, the long thick blade crushing the grass beneath it as it lay against the earth. A large brown rucksack lay sitting up behind him, loaded with what he assumed would be basic adventuring gear. A longbow was jutting out of the top of the sack, along with its quiver full of arrows.

He noticed that there was a flask tied to the right side of his hip, corked tightly. The brown liquid within appeared to be some very fine alcohol.

He looked to the center between them all, and saw what appeared to be a bright silver coin, and a bright golden one. The monk narrowed his glowing white pupiless eyes, and approached the currency, crouching down and snatching one of the coins up from the grass. His metal hand, while undoubtedly no longer living flesh, could still feel.

So when the coins _burnt_ his hand, he dropped them, quickly pulling his hand back, shaking it. The coins began to spin rapidly in the air, emitting a high pitched whine that irritated him immensely. Faster than he could react, the coins shot into the bodies of the large woman and the plate armored human.

Oros clenched his teeth, and prepared to… jump back in case the coins hurt them. However, their bodies did not even jump, and Oros could see that the two of them were clearly breathing.

 **(Grimhollow and Sky Sept have attained a new and mysterious strength…)**

Oros shook his head.

Why was he here?

His head felt fuzzy, and he sat down, crossing his legs beneath him. He drew in a long breath, and then let it out, calming his nerves. He then tried to think back to before he awakened here. However, it was little use, the only thing he could recall was the darkness spreading over him, threatening to take him to his accursed brother Dakanang (Doc-an-anng) However, something intervened, and then he was here.

He then felt a large finger poke his forehead, and Oros opened his eyes, only to stare into an opposing pair of steel grey eyes that flickered with mirth. The winged woman had awakened. She gave him a warm smile and Oros smiled back.

It was good to be greeted by a friendly smile every now and again, as opposed to the constant aggression he was used to.

"Hey there, names Grimhollow, what's yours?" She asked him.

"Oros." He replied, standing up from the ground.

The two of them heard the elf on the ground stirring, the man sitting up, still clutching his grimoire.

"Arg… my head." He said, his green gold speckled eyes meeting the two awakened party members. "I heard you already introduce yourselves. I am Salem; Salem Goldwhisper. It's… a pleasure?" The elf seemed to ask.

Grimhollow and Oros looked to each other, and then back to the elf.

"Yes, a pleasure." The monk responded.

Grimhollow walked over to the elf, and offered a hand to help the seemingly feeble man off of his feet. The elf took it gratefully, shocking the larger woman with his surprisingly firm grip. He dusted off his robes, and popped his knuckles.

"I suppose you two don't know where we are then?" Salem asked.

"Erm… nope." Grimhollow responded. "Not a clue, this is all post Felzner party syndrome to me. I mean, sure it's not where I fell asleep but I've definitely woken up in weirder places."

Her hand reached up to pet her right shoulder. After her fingers brushed over the rocky protrusions on her shoulders, her eyes widened with surprise, looking to the body part in question.

"Um… where did it?" She said, looking all around her feet and the ground surrounding where she woke up.

The elf and the monk both observed silently, until the third and final member awoke from his sleep, sitting up with a groan. Oros walked over to him, and offered the man a hand. He took it, lifting him from the ground and onto his feet. The armored man sheathed the sword at his belt.

"Thanks stranger, names Sky Sept." He said.

Oros opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when Grimhollow screamed at them.

"Have you seen a saber cat head lying around here?" She asked, looking concerned.

Oros silently stared for ten seconds before he responded with

"What?"

"Um… no, why?" Sky asked.

Grimhollow scratched her cheek, and turned away from the two other party members.

"Well just let me know if you see it okay?" She asked.

Oros frowned.

"Alright…" He said silently.

"Oh by the way, you're an Aasimar right?" Grimhollow asked, turning back to the monk.

Oros nodded in response.

"So your blood hurts undead right?" Grimhollow asked, an innocent smile playing across her lips.

Oros frown deepened, and he took a step back from the goliath.

"Yes. Yes it does. But I don't need to shed my own blood to put the dead back to rest." Oros answered.

Grimhollow put her hands on her hips.

"Just try not to bleed on any of my friends once I summon them alright?" She asked him.

Oros scowled.

"You're a necromancer… a desecrator of the honored dead." He said, sliding into his bastion stance. "Who is your patron? If it is Orcus I will put you down now!"

Grimhollow rolled her eyes.

"No way, Orcus is trash compared to Felzner." Grimhollow told him, throwing the monk off guard.

Oros had never heard of such a deity.

"Who is Felzner?" Sky asked.

Grimhollow stood straight, displaying a proud tooth filled grin.

"He is the god of Endurance, friendship, shadows, insanity…" She started.

Oros was confused after hearing 'friendship' from the lips of the goliath… perhaps her patron was not so evil after all. The monk knew of necromancers that only summoned the souls of the willing to fight for them, perhaps the clerics of Felzner were similar?

"And murder!" Grimhollow finished, pumping a fist into the air.

Oros's jaw dropped. What kind of god had there sphere of influence in both friendship _and_ murder? He had never heard of such a thing!

"Just… don't go committing acts of evil." Oros said. "Now… tell me more about this Felzner." Standing back up to his full height.

Grimhollow seemed very excited to talk about the subject, and rattled off several facts about her patron god to Oros and Sky. The latter of which seemed to be generally disinterested.

The conversations carried on like that for a while between the Monk, Goliath and the Champion. Salem Goldwhisper huffed with annoyance, and raised a hand to the sky.

"Heavens above! Hear me and grant my wish! I want to know where we are!" He shouted, the air around him crackling with white electricity. The sky darkened over the sun and a bright wave of blue light shot faster than the eye could see towards the wizard's skull, disappearing straight into his forehead.

Oros walked towards the wizard, who was frozen in place, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Falmart…" The elf muttered, shaking his head. "Who names a place Falmart? Gah!"

Oros removed his hand, the elf sounded irritated.

"Well, I'd say this isn't my world anymore. How annoying. It's likely the same for all of you; after all, why else would you awaken here with me?" He asked.

The four party members remained silent.

"I can only use that spell once a day, now, let us be off. Standing around doing nothing isn't going to solve our problem." Salem said, turning his back to the party. "This is north, and right now I would say it's about ten in the morning, if we're lucky I'll come across a settlement of some kind. I am going to fly directly north, the three of you will walk in that same direction. If I come across civilization, I will come back to you."

"Who made you the leader?" Grimhollow said. "And who said anything about flying north? There are _three_ more directions to a compass ya know? Well, technically. I'm not counting-"

"Bye." The wizard said, flying into the air with ease.

Grimhollow grit her teeth, and flapped her wings, flying up after the wizard. However, it was clear that Salem was much faster, leaving the three of them behind quickly. Continuing his flight north. Oros and Sky began walking directly along Salem's flight path, Grimhollow hovering fifty feet above them. After about ten minutes of marching, the cleric flew back down to earth, pointing a finger at Oros.

"So I can understand Sky not flying, he doesn't have wings… but you have wings Oros, why don't you fly with them?" Grimhollow asked him.

The monk frowned, and his wings seemingly shrunk behind him.

"Well… I can't actually fly with them." He said.

Grimhollow cocked her head at him.

"Why?" She asked.

Oros sighed.

"I just can't. They don't work." He answered.

Sky pointed to the monks wings.

"So you're like a chicken." He said.

Oros groaned.

"Yes…"

"I can teach ya if you want." Grimhollow told him, flapping her wings. "I'm not too good at it myself, but I have a grasp of the basics.

The monk looked to the ground.

"I am grateful for the offer, but we don't really have time for such a thing at the moment. I am more concerned with finding out where we are." He said, pulling a red feather from a pouch on his belt. "But I am grateful for the offer, here," Oros continued, offering one of his red feathers to the cleric. "A sign of my appreciation."

Grimhollow tilted her head at the odd offering, and gingerly took the feather from the monks grasp. The texture of the feather surprisingly firm, feeling almost like steel, yet retaining its flexibility. She mindlessly toyed with it as the three of them continued their walk, still concerned as to where her saber cat head had disappeared to.

One hour passed of walking until they came to the border of a large thickly wooded forest, both ends of which spreading out in either direction with no end in sight. It was at that moment when Salem Goldwhisper reappeared above them, landing behind the three with panache.

"Alright, there is what appears to be a small settlement within these woods. It isn't directly north, so I will lead you to it through this forest." Salem said sternly. "Let us make haste."

Grimhollow rolled her eyes at the wizard; he seemed like a pretty rigid bastard.

Oros agreed, and followed after the wizard with the two other members behind. Salem levitated just above the ground by six inches, leading the group by five feet. Oros was second with Sky following two feet behind him, and Grimhollow walked besides Sky four feet separating them. The forest itself was filled with several oak trees, the sun barely leaking out between the broad green leaves above them.

Soon the party sighted the settlement that Salem spoke of… though to everyone there it was clear that this was more of a fortress as to an actual settlement. Wooden log walls encircle the interior, looking to be about half a mile in width. The overall shape of the fort was similar to that of an oval, surrounded by a ten foot deep and ten foot wide water filled trench. Trees surrounding the fort had been cut down, leaving stumps sticking up out of the ground for twenty feet around the trench. A ten foot wide and eleven foot long bridge lay across the length of the trench.

The group heard a shout from atop the forts walls, and the wooden palisade opened. Several armed men wearing brown leather armor charged out, quickly encircling them, swords drawn. Forty men surrounded the four of them, all with longswords or crossbows drawn. The way they wore their garb suggested that there was no ranking system with these men, leading the party to assume that there was no ranking system among them. The leather was all marred differently, and well weathered; the blades seemed to have several nicks in them.

They all glared at the party, who had assumed their various combat stances. Thirty seconds of silence passed before a large man walked across the bridge, looking to be six feet two inches and wielding a fine steel great sword. He was well muscled, and his chiseled chin held a large slash scar across it. A black eye patch covered the right side of his face, and he grinned at the party.

"Tu ala yonut ak yorlal fulk."

The entire party could not understand a word of what the man had just said… all except for Salem.

"You all don't look like normal folk." Salem heard.

Grimhollow frowned at the man.

"Not catching a word." She told him.

Oros silently agreed, he could not understand a thing he said, and Sky was much the same.

"He says that we don't look normal." Salem translated.

The man slung the blade over his shoulder, and smirked.

"But that doesn't matter; you all look like you would be good slaves. Drop your weapons and get on your knees property. If we're lucky you'll get sold within the week!" He shouted, pointing his blade at the group.

Salem Goldwhisper clenched his teeth in rage.

"They're slave traders, telling us to surrender!" He translated, his voice dripping with venom.

"I will die before I succumb to the will of another! I will fight!" Oros shouted.

 **(The situation looks pretty bleak, but to the party members Oros looks ready to engage at any moment, and Salem himself looks furious as well. What do your characters do? Fight? Surrender? Or will you try and find another solution without bloodshed?)**


End file.
